This invention relates to methods and apparatus for improving data access by storing recently used data in a cache, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for caching most recently used data patterns.
Conventionally, when a read operation or a write operation is performed on a computer system having a data cache, the data read or written is stored in the cache. Associated with the cache are hashing tables for correlating the data to addresses (e.g., physical device addresses). Flags are also associated with the data to determine whether the data in the cache for the requested address is valid, and maintain data coherency between the cache contents and the permanent storage device contents.